The workhorse rocket is the most advanced in the Falcon series developed by SpaceX, the space tech company owned by the tech billionaire.

Eight minutes after the launch, a 16-storey booster that was the lower part of the rocket, successfully landed back onto a drone ship.

The upper stage continued into deep space and deployed the first geostationary communications satellite for Bangladesh called Bangabandhu-1.

According to Musk’s tweets, SpaceX will probably “build 30 to 40 rocket cores” for the Falcon 9 Block 5 to cover about 300 missions over the next five years. What that means is dramatically lower cost that will make space travel cheaper and more accessible in the very near future.

By then when it’s time to retire the Falcon 9, the Big Falcon Rocket or BFR, a next-generation reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft capable of transporting anybody to the moon and beyond will take over.

SpaceX will prob build 30 to 40 rocket cores for ~300 missions over 5 years. Then BFR takes over & Falcon retires. Goal of BFR is to enable anyone to move to moon, Mars & eventually outer planets.